Rodrigues to Mauritius
Peregrina's Journey
Peter and Margie Benziger
Thu 24 Oct 2013 16:36
Where in the World are
Margie and Peter?
Enroute to South Africa from
Rodrigues to Mauritius
Time for a
little catch-up here in the Peregrina blog…
We’ve been
making good time on our Indian Ocean passage and, so far, the weather has been a
mixture of really good with a bit of not so good. We’ve had mostly clear skies, very little
rain but the winds have continued to remain strong – on average 20-25 knots
with gusts up to 40 knots – and the seas have been very confused.
BTW…I just
realized that, quite often, you’ll hear Peter or me referring to “confused
seas.” I’m sure to some of our
landlubber friends find this term a bit…well…CONFUSING!
What exactly
does the sea have to be confused about, you might ask?
Well, I’ll
try to explain… As far as I can make out, it’s a case of the wind angling in at
odds with the current and the swell. This creates an
impact that stirs up “confused seas.”
The wind at
this time of the year is blowing mostly from the south/southeast but the main current
is coming solidly from the east. So, we
have the current mixing with the natural undulating “swells” (A swell, in the context of an ocean, sea or lake, is a series of surface
gravity waves that is not generated by the local wind) and then the SSE wind
whips across the top of those swells at an angle sheering off ANOTHER set of waves
which blow in a completely different direction! So, you’ve got choppy, rolling, CONFUSED seas
coming at you from everywhere!!!
Are you more
confused now than when I started???
Well, enough
of that and back to Mauritius…
The passage
was approximately 350 miles and was pretty uneventful. We had too much wind at times and not enough
at others. Peter HATES to turn on our
engine Hercules and is willing to plug along under sail even if we’re only
making 2 or 3 knots which drives me CRAZY!
I like to cruise along at 5 knots minimum and when it drops under that,
I’m ready to rev up Hercules and keep on truckin!
So, we were
headed for the capital city of Port Louis on the northwest coast of Mauritius
but the timing wasn’t right for us to arrive before dark. Therefore, on our fourth night, we stopped 30
miles shy of Port Louis in Gran Baie, a popular tourist town right on the
northern tip of Mauritius.
It was a
little dicey getting into this anchorage as the channel was poorly marked and
we were down to about 1 foot of water underneath the keel – at which point
EVERYONE involuntarily stops breathing – but we made it and dropped the anchor
at the outside edge of the anchorage.
We didn’t
plan to check in with Customs at Gran Baie because we were moving on to Port
Louis early the next day but, at 9pm that night.., we got a visit from the
Customs and Immigration guys informing us that they SAW us arrive at 4pm and
that we should have hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and proceeded to the shore with all our official boat documentation.
Peter calmly
but firmly informed them that he had called FOUR times on the VHF frequency
listed for the customs department but that no one had answered and, if they KNEW we
arrived at 4pm, why didn’t anyone answer our call and summon us into the office
at a decent hour? Why would they wait
until 9pm to let us know we were in violation of the law? Hmmm, could this possibly be a prelude to a
bribe OR were they just covering their derrieres because they hadn’t been
listening to their VHF radio and responded to our call as required earlier in
the afternoon???
Well, all of
a sudden the guy in charge said, OK, let’s handle it this way…
“You
(meaning Peter) sail to Port Louis tomorrow morning and tell them that you sailed
directly from Rodrigues to Mauritius. You
didn’t stop. You didn’t see me (Customs
Guy) and I never saw you!” “Works for
us,” says Peter! “Have a nice night,”
says Customs Guy as he motors off into the darkness…
Anyway, the
next morning, we had an easy sail to Port Louis and checked in without hassle
at the Customs Dock in Port Louis which is shown below.
Usually there is a ton of paperwork to be completed by
the Harbormaster, Customs and Immigrations personnel and it can be time-consuming. Sometimes the forms can get to be a little
ridiculous but, we found this particular page, asking about stowaways, on the Immigration questionnaire
to be quite amusing…
I’ll tell
you…if there WERE any stowaways in the harbor, my guess would be that they
might be on the numerous Chinese fishing vessels that we saw in the harbor at
Port Louis and, if I were one of them, I’d be SO happy to get off and on to dry
land! These ships look like floating
death traps!
In contrast
to that, look at this magnificent Italian Navy “Tall Ship” training vessel
which arrived a couple days after we took at berth at the Caudan Marina in Port
Louis. Check out the seamen standing on the yardarms! Awesome!!!
So, here we
are in Mauritius, an independent state which is part of the Mascarene
Archipelago along with Rodrigues, Reunion and a few smaller islands.
The
population is almost 1.3 million people and while English is the official
language, most people prefer to speak French – which must have really annoyed
the British who took possession of Mauritius from France in 1810 and were in
power here until independence was announced in 1968.
The French
had introduced slavery to Mauritius (which accounts for the large Creole
population here) and the settlers and plantation owners vigorously opposed
England’s efforts to abolish the policy.
When it was finally abolished in 1835, the locals quickly turned to
India for an alternative source of labor known as indentured servants, or the
“coolie trade.” Indians now make up 68%
of the population here in Mauritius and, in addition to being the backbone of
the labor and agriculture communities, they are active in the economic and
political life of Mauritius.
Not only is
it strange to hear the Indian-Mauritians speaking French, but one must also get
used to a French-speaking country - whose official language is really English -
using Rupees as currency! Throw in all
the African Creoles, Chinese, Europeans, Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and
Hindus and what a cultural melting pot you’ve got here in Mauritius!
Anyway, Port
Louis (Lou-ee) is a wonderful town and Peter and I (as well as our trusty
crewmembers, Bob and Vicky Reynard enjoyed ourselves immensely!
We went to
the horse races at Champs de Mar right in Port Louis! Founded in 1812, this is the oldest racetrack
in the southern hemisphere and one of the oldest in the world. Champs de Mar is surrounded by mountains which creates a
natural amphitheater and the Mauritians love to gamble so the Saturday races
are always well attended.
We sat up in the VIP visitor’s boxes to watch the first few races but then moved down closer to the field to be a part of the real action. There were nine races that day and we managed to win only one.
The photo
below shows a jockey in yellow riding a horse named Obama.
We didn’t bet on Obama at the voting booth so
we didn’t feel we could put our money on him at the horse betting window. Turns out, Bob and Vicky won big on that
horse. It remains to be seen what will
happen on the political turf back in America…
We sat up in the VIP visitor’s boxes to watch the first few races but then moved down closer to the field to be a part of the real action. There were nine races that day and we managed to win only one.
Perhaps our
worst mistake was to listen to the taxi driver who brought us to the track that
day. He said, “Bet on Number 10, Bongo
Beat, in the 8th race. He’ll
be the winner – Guaranteed!” Well, we bet
100 rupees on good old #10 and Bongo Beat got Badly Beaten! In fact, he came in DEAD LAST!!! Good thing 100 rupees is only worth about
$3.33!
We did some
sightseeing around Mauritius – rented a car for a couple days and cruised
around the island visiting tea plantations…
Hindu Temples...
Brightly colored shopping plazas...
We also
visited The Seven Colored Earths, which was a triple
football field sized area of denuded earth that exposes seven colors of earthly
stratum from yellow, orange, red, purple, wine, brown and even blue…if you look
REALLY close and have a REALLY good imagination.
And, a beautiful waterfall...
The last little story about Mauritius is a sad one. Remember, I told you that slavery was abolished in 1835? Well, prior to that date, several hundred slaves escaped from their plantation owners and fled to the square shaped mountain called Morne Brabant in the southern peninsula on the west coast of the island.
These runaway slaves, known
as maroons, took refuge in the caves that dotted the mountainside. On February
1, 1835, the maroons thought that a police party sent to tell them that slavery
had been abolished was coming to arrest them!
Rather than submit to what they imagined was a return to the chains that
bound them to slavery, they threw themselves off the summit of the mountain to
their death.
Their descendants still live in the little village at the foot of the mountain today and regard Le Morne, which came to symbolize the suffering of the island’s slaves, as a sacred place. UNESCO has designated Le Morne as a World Heritage Site and a memorial has been placed there as part of their International Slave Route Project.
Their descendants still live in the little village at the foot of the mountain today and regard Le Morne, which came to symbolize the suffering of the island’s slaves, as a sacred place. UNESCO has designated Le Morne as a World Heritage Site and a memorial has been placed there as part of their International Slave Route Project.
A plaque on the site reads, "There were hundreds of them, but my people the maroons chose the kiss of death over the chains of slavery. Never must we forget their noble deed, written in the pages of history for the sake of humanity."
On a less somber note, I’ll leave you with a pleasant image or our time in Mauritius…
Here’s Peter riding the mechanical bull at the Friday Night Party at the Suffern Hotel just across the channel from our marina. He’s got a "Happy as a Pig Eating You Know What" grin on his face right there but...in a flash, he was flying end over end to the (thankfully) well-padded ground after a whopping 21-second ride! Old guys SHOULDN’T do this!!! But, Lauren and Amy, don’t tell your father that! He’s a kid at heart!!!
On a less somber note, I’ll leave you with a pleasant image or our time in Mauritius…
Here’s Peter riding the mechanical bull at the Friday Night Party at the Suffern Hotel just across the channel from our marina. He’s got a "Happy as a Pig Eating You Know What" grin on his face right there but...in a flash, he was flying end over end to the (thankfully) well-padded ground after a whopping 21-second ride! Old guys SHOULDN’T do this!!! But, Lauren and Amy, don’t tell your father that! He’s a kid at heart!!!
